A big component of the NFL Scouting Combine is teams evaluating prospects’ physical abilities in drills and their football IQ in meetings.
However, Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers’ meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers was focused more closely on who he is as a person and not so much the game of football. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin actually showed a noticeable interest in Ewers’ academic career at Texas.
It was great, it was great,” Ewers told Aditi Kinkhabwala on CBS Sports HQ when asked about his combine meeting with the Steelers. “Talked to Coach Tomlin and just get to know him a little bit and him getting to know me. … It was funny, we started talking about my major. It’s like what [former Ohio State quarterback] Cardale Jones said, ‘We didn’t go to college to play school.’ It was good getting to talk to him.”
Jones once tweeted, “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL. We ain’t come to play SCHOOL. Classes are POINTLESS.” Following his Ohio State Buckeyes career in which he started and won the 2014 College Football Playoff National Championship game, Jones ended up finishing his degree and graduating from college. He now regrets the tweet. Ewers’ major at Texas was physical culture in sports, something Tomlin had a follow up question about before telling Ewers that the Steelers will be at his Pro Day workout as well.
“He [Tomlin] wanted to know what is, like what my final GPA was. It was around a 3.3, 3.4ish,” Ewers said. “He just wrote it down in his notebook. You know what they say ‘C’s get degrees.’ But I didn’t finish school. … They didn’t put me on the board [to draw up plays], which was really, them and one other team that I didn’t get on the board I think they were just really trying to get to know me. I know they’re going to be at the Pro Day for me. I’m sure we’ll have conversations after or both them.”
Ewers revealed he had seven formal meetings at the combine: the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, New York Jets, New Orleans Saints, Las Vegas Raiders, Indianapolis Colts and the Steelers. Pittsburgh and Las Vegas were the only two that didn’t ask him to stand up at the white board and diagram plays during their respective meetings with Ewers. Here are a few of the Longhorns All-SEC quarterback’s top draft landing spots based on where things stand during combine week.
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